As a high school senior preparing to study environmental policy in college, my experience as a Young Ambassador has been instrumental in showing me the power of civic engagement and the value of community stewardship in the field of environmental policy. Specifically, my experience as a Young Ambassador has shown me the inherent benefits of local action, as opposed to widespread action on a national or international level. Prior to this year, I found myself focusing my future aspirations more on widespread sustainability efforts while simultaneously feeling that I could never possibly lead this impactful change; however, my experience as a Young Ambassador has revealed to me that communities rely on local action, which is often more effective for improving an area’s cleanliness, sustainability, and overall community health than large-scale actions that fail to meet an individual community’s needs.

Throughout my time as a Young Ambassador, I have integrated my passion for youth civic engagement with my commitment to environmental advocacy by frequently contacting my local and state representatives. While beginning this habit of calling, emailing, and sending letters to my representatives was stressful at first, I eventually began to believe in myself more and more, realizing that my opinion is as valuable as any other of my representatives’ constituents. Additionally, my experience organizing my community clean-up and education events has empowered me to realize that the choice to show up as a community organizer is not limited by age, and this realization has inspired me to continue leading change more frequently and on different scales throughout my time in college.

I have already begun this process at my high school, as I recently worked with my school’s Social Studies Honor Society to host a voter registration drive for the senior class. In addition to helping my peers register to vote, I helped create an educational presentation explaining how midterm elections work, the details of Pennsylvania’s closed primaries, and how to request a mail-in ballot while in college. Even after I graduate from the Young Ambassadors program, I hope to continue empowering young adults to engage in civil discourse, contact their representatives, vote in elections, and even consider running for office themselves.

Since becoming a Young Ambassador, the primary way in which I have positively contributed to my community is through spreading awareness of environmental issues and increasing environmental education opportunities. In elementary and middle school, I rarely experienced opportunities for environmental education in my community, and I remained unaware of the issues present in my own neighborhood until I reached high school. To change this reality for future generations, I have begun creating environmental education opportunities beyond hosting my required education event:

Firstly, after completing my community assessment on recycling practices at my high school, I decided to continue spreading this information and increasing awareness of practical and sustainable recycling habits in my school community. As my AP Environmental Science class was tasked with performing an audit of waste, water, electricity, and transportation practices within our school, I added in my own research specifically focused on the school’s recycling practices. This additional information allowed me to show my school community practical steps that we can take towards more sustainable recycling habits and a general culture shift towards environmental awareness.

Next, I began working on planning my education event: a free workshop for girls in grades 5-7 called “Eco-Science Saturday.” This event not only drew in my school community as I recruited student and faculty volunteers to help facilitate the event, but it also involved the community of surrounding grade schools as these students visited my high school to attend the event. By the end of the event, every single volunteer and participant raised their hand to affirm that they learned something new during the event, and they all had fun while learning about sustainable fire-building practices and the power of carbon sequestration! At the end of the workshop, I encouraged the girls to go home and share this information with their friends and family, helping to improve my community by educating one person at a time.

Currently, I am finishing planning an event that I will be running on April 16th for a local Brownie Girl Scout troop where I will lead girls in grades 2-3 through the process of earning their “Eco Friend” badge, which features requirements like “think of ways to help the outdoors,” “build a safe campfire,” and “take care of wildlife.” Through sharing this knowledge, I am excited to continue investing into my community and increasing environmental education opportunities for the youth in my community, as I wish someone would have done when I was their age.

1. My age is an asset, not a limitation. Before becoming a Young Ambassador, I believed that I would have to work to advocate for environmental protections in spite of my age; however, my experience as a Young Ambassador has taught me that I am a powerful advocate for the environment because of my age. While my age alone is not the only factor that drives my environmental advocacy, I realize that this aspect of my identity uniquely situates me to provide a valuable perspective on environmental policy issues that are relevant to myself and my generation. Ultimately, my experience as a Young Ambassador has shown me to appreciate my age as a crucial part of my identity that should be seen less like a weakness and more like a superpower.

2. I don’t have to make change alone. My experience as a Young Ambassador has pushed me to emphasize engaging others in my efforts to make change, rather than taking all of this responsibility upon myself. Early in the program, I struggled with imposter syndrome that told me I was not knowledgeable or experienced enough to make change at such a young age; however, hearing my fellow Young Ambassadors share similar emotions in our Zoom breakout rooms demonstrated the value of relying on those around me for advice and support. Making change at such a young age easily brings feelings of anxiety, so connecting with other teenagers going through the same thing helped me to feel less alone and see the value of sharing my feelings with my community. Additionally, I am currently planning to run my community clean-up event on April 17th with a fellow Young Ambassador, Willie Waerig. While I had never met Willie before the program, we connected at one of our program meetings and ended up planning our event together! Working with a partner to run this event has shown me the benefits of making change within a community, especially as our reach is extended to a greater number of people.

3. My passions and experiences qualify me to make change. In the beginning of the program, I believed that I simply did not possess the knowledge needed to produce a well-researched report on any of my topic ideas. However, hearing my fellow Young Ambassadors bounce their ideas off of each other in our Zoom breakout rooms made me realize that I am undoubtedly an expert in my own lived experiences–something I had never considered beforehand. From this experience, I came to realize that rather than trying to “reinvent the wheel” with my education events, I could stick to what I know. For example, as I planned activities to lead at my first event, I took inspiration from the Trash Timeline activity we participated in on our crossover meeting with Virginia’s Young Ambassadors, as well as from a lab activity I had completed in my AP Environmental Science Class. While these ideas did not seem “good enough” at first, my experience as a Young Ambassador showed me that my lived experiences and passions can provide valuable information for others.